VERBATIM.

"When my friend apologizes to me for a sin that he has committed, the appropriate response is for me to thank him, to welcome his repentance, and to express my desire to continue our discussion. It is surely inappropriate to greet a heartfelt act of contrition with a pointed reminder of every act of wrongdoing that I think may have been left off the list."

--Rabbi Eric Yoffie, commenting on criticisms of the Catholic Church's recent apologies regarding its past treatment of the Jewish people (quoted in Catholic Trends, April 15, 2000)

"The only essential difference that I can tell between Christians and non-Christians is not necessarily morality, it's that Christians have acknowledged that we're sinners and we can't make it on our own. We're failures and will continue to fail."

--Evangelical author Philip Yancey (The Door, May/June 2000)

"What the church needs today are not adulators to extol the status quo, but men whose humility and obedience are not less than their passion for the truth: men who face every misunderstanding and attack as they bear witness; who, in a word, love the church more than ease and the unruffled course of their personal destiny."

--Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as a young theologian in 1962 (quoted in National Catholic Reporter)